DLC 19 Speculation

Your argument clearly overlooks the importance of representing a wide range of species, not just the most iconic or well-known ones. By excluding the Dama gazelle, the game misses an opportunity to educate players about lesser-known conservation efforts, highlighting that all endangered species, regardless of their public profile, are crucial to biodiversity.

Additionally, conservation isn’t just about high-profile success stories—many species, like the Dama gazelle, face quiet but critical threats that deserve attention. The goal isn’t just to populate the game with well-known or “star” species, but to offer a wider array of animals that represent various ecological niches, threats, and conservation efforts, even those that might not be as immediately iconic or popular.
You completely overlooked my points as to why the dama gazelle is bad animal for this message
  • Even within its own dlc the dama gazelle does not represent a new threat, region, animal type or type of conservation effort people will get just as much education from the addax as the dama gazelle
  • the specific ways in which they introduced the dama gazelle actively remove the conservation value from the animals only including it at the species level designed after the subspecies with the least conservation efforts and zoo presence when they had a subspecies that is both extinct in the wild and in a reasonable number of zoos
  • you say the dama gazelle offers a variety of threats, ecological niches or conservation efforts I fail to see a single thing unique about this particular inclusion other than its genus its range threats ecological niche and style of conservation are all covered by a variety of other animals.
  • I never said anything about only including success stories just that the stories need to be there and fully formed.

To add some new points
  • we have less than 200 animals in the game with significant blind spots to key groups. Including a rare both in captivity and in the wild animal with limited conservation efforts and little public knowledge from a group that already has 2 other representatives isnt productive both to conservation or the roster quality.
  • I never said that we shouldn't educate players about lesser known conservation efforts as long as there is something to educate about, something unique about the ways the animal is harmed, the ways in which its protected, the difficulties that efforts face something that makes the effort different to others.
  • This is first and foremost a game about building a zoo education always has and always will be second. The gameplay both the building and the storytelling are the most important aspects of this game both categories in which the dama gazelle fails with little unique about its story and even less unique about its habitat design.
  • there are only 3 non rodent critically endangered desert mammals and we got all three in the exact same pack we did not need the dama gazelle to tell a story that the pack was already telling

- also probably a hot take but this game is actually trash at educating players about conservation
 
That's what a lot of the general argument ignores anyways. Nobody realises how speciose ungulates are, so their representation isn't well-grasped by laypeople. Even dropping the ~90 whale species, there's still well over 250 species of ungulate to utilise.

I'm not against more bats, the walkthrough exhibit is a great system for more to be added! And I'm not against more rodents like American porcupines, agoutis, pacas, marmots, and many others. The problem is that most rodents don't really work as habitat animals since they're small and many also live near-entirely underground. This isn't a problem for ungulates.

"With 143 extant species and 300 known extinct species, the family Bovidae consists of 11 (or two) major subfamilies and thirteen major tribes."
Surprise! Cattle and caprines are antelope. No way around it no matter how you slice it. If kudu and gazelles are antelope, so are those 2 groups.
huh checking the IUCN its says there are only 139, the American mammalian society says 153 and wikipedia say 143 when I first questioned your point I was looking at the 139 number which to me seemed like a stretch to call 150.
 
Your argument clearly overlooks the importance of representing a wide range of species, not just the most iconic or well-known ones. By excluding the Dama gazelle, the game misses an opportunity to educate players about lesser-known conservation efforts, highlighting that all endangered species, regardless of their public profile, are crucial to biodiversity.

Additionally, conservation isn’t just about high-profile success stories—many species, like the Dama gazelle, face quiet but critical threats that deserve attention. The goal isn’t just to populate the game with well-known or “star” species, but to offer a wider array of animals that represent various ecological niches, threats, and conservation efforts, even those that might not be as immediately iconic or popular.
Honestly I like the dama gazelle, and I really agree with this take. The dama gazelle has grown a lot on me, especially since I saw a similar antelope at the North Carolina Zpp. And not to derail this to another bird conversation, but your last paragraph is especially why I’m upset we have so few birds. The dama gazelle deserves a spot in this game for its conservation story in the same way the whooping crane, prairie chicken, maleo, nene, or any other bird does. It’s just for some reason, even as more and more packs come out, Frontier doesn’t want to change that. Even if they could spotlight some of these birds like they did the addax, dama gazelle, or others, Frontier won’t for some reason. Which really isn’t the animals fault.

Unfortunately I think this has created a sort of us vs them mentality, which ungulate fans, and certainly the animals themselves, don’t deserve. I’ll even admit I have helped garner that sentiment, but it’s a really hard one not to feel when you can look at the results themselves. 🫠

I don’t think I would change any animal at this point, but I do want Frontier to atleast change going forward. Like we have had these amazing ungulates added to the game, the dikdik, dama gazelle, wild ass, takin, wisent, markhor, etc. It’s just feeling like screaming into the void when Frontier won’t even pay half as much attention to the animals I like seeing at zoos. I think a lot of the frustration gets misdirected that way.

I think that’s why the dama gazelle gets “picked on” a bit. They are beautiful animals with fascinating stories. It fits the themes of the game too. Frontier recognized that and added them into the game. After two years of adding the dama gazelle, the issue is Frontier barely pays half as much attention to other animal groups who also deserve that spotlight. 8 mean we have a zoo game with no golden lion tamarin, California condor, and similar conservation stories. Likewise ungulates get to make up a bulk of recent packs, and we still don’t have a single bird for the continent of North America. South Americas only bird is also a poor representation for it too.

I get how it can feel insulting having people go after the animals you love, the animals you love and you don’t deserve that. I’ll also say after 2 years of being on the forum and for playing this game since launch I have just felt more and more ignored by Frontier. That has admittedly made me bitter. I got to be honest watching ungulate and Carnivora fans get what they want, while I as a bird fan might get two birds a year, makes me feel like this:
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I mean as a bird guy the only animal I “got” in 2024 was a chicken! Imagine wanting cats in Planet Zoo and still not having a jaguar!
 
I mean as a bird guy the only animal I “got” in 2024 was a chicken! Imagine wanting cats in Planet Zoo and still not having a jaguar!
I'm a canid fan who hasn't gotten a new animal in 2 years... Yet, when you put it like that, it makes me grateful for and content with the canids in game already. PZ's canid roster is probably the strongest in a PC zoo game in all time. The bird roster on the other hand is very poor... There are nearly 11,000 bird species and they make up huge components of zoos' collection. A single aviary could have as many bird species as we have in game! Lastly, they are cool. I love to see dogs the most at zoos, then hoofstock, then cats etc... Yet, the birds are often more visible and energetic. They are elegant. Some of my favorite memories of zoos has come from watching the Grey-crowned Cranes and the Andean Condor. I think for the game to have a good representation of birds we need AT LEAST a dedicated bird animal pack.
 
I got to be honest watching ungulate and Carnivora fans get what they want, while I as a bird fan might get two birds a year, makes me feel like this:
Your mistake is thinking there is such a thing as an "ungulate fan" or a "carnivora fan". This is simply a case of different expectations, different personal priorities, and different 'needs'. Everyone here has at some point straddled or does currently straddle the line between "what I want" and "what I think the game needs" and though there is some overlap these things aren't always the same.

Besides which you mentioned condors twice, comparing them to the addax and dama gazelle, and let's be real, they are not comparable. In real world terms, sure, but not in game terms, because whether they could "technically work" as a habitat animal or not, they are still a bird that ought to be kept in an aviary. This is the same with a lot of birds that get brought up - secretarybirds, ibises, heck, even ducks to some extent (but we have the swan, so they in theory get a pass). I tend to assume that this is the reason why Frontier isn't so keen on expanding the bird roster overly much.**

Bird collections in zoos are overwhelmingly aviary birds. IMO this is probably why there are people like me who don't feel like birds as a whole have been shafted. Clearly we aren't getting aviary birds for the game, and beyond the awkward "maybe, maybe not" birds I mentioned before most of the obvious "ground birds" have already been covered. Could we get more cranes? More pheasants? More flamingos? Yes, we clearly could, but should that be the priority? Conversely, ungulates, as a rule, are fairly easy to care for and to breed in captivity which is why they make up such an enormous portion of captive mammals. This is similar to the arguments that Africa is "overrepresented"; it's not, and neither are ungulates. The roster is just reflecting real life, to some extent. Doesn't mean other areas aren't lacking, but it does mean ungulates shouldn't be shut out (plus, they're obviously pretty easy to make, compared to birds or monkeys).

**I maintain that this could be mitigated with a god damned mesh building set so we can at least pretend to have aviaries and covered habitats!
 
Carnivorans have extremely heavy representation despite only encompassing about 40 species each for cats and dogs (about 280 species in total). Ungulates are a huge group of nearly 150 species for antelope alone, and nearly 380 species total (not including domesticated animals, which behaviourally work better in petting zoos than carnivorans) in a wide variety of habitats and ecological niches. Non-ape monkeys are in a similar boat, but with even worse representation in-game than ungulates. And then there's birds, an entire class of animal with over 10,000 species have just 12 representatives in-game.

Magnitude is the main difference between a 10th dog and a 13th bird. This isn't Nintendogs, and shouldn't be either. Zoos work to promote biodiversity, and having lots of diverse animal groups like birds, other reptiles, primates, and ungulates is a great way to do that. Having all the dogs? Not so much.
It wouldn't be all dogs and cats if it was a carnivore pack. There's actually 16 different families in Carnivora. 3 are the Canidae, Felidae, and Ursidae (our cats, dogs, and bears which have many species in the game already. Then the Red Panda in its own family Ailuridae. And finally the hyenas Hyaenidae which we have 2 out of the 4 species of so are all represented. So that's 3 + 1 + 1= 5 families which good representation, so that leaves 9 carnivora families. But the Nandinidae family includes only the rather obscure African Palm Civet as the only family member and Prionodontidae is only the 2 species of Asiatic lingsangs which are also extremely obscure. Euperidae only readily recognizable animals to the general public is the fossa because of the movie Madagascar and we already have the fossa, and Mephitidae is the skunks which we already have the mainly recognized one, the striped skunk, but a Spotted Skunk could possibly be added as the second most well-known skunk but isn't super necessary because it isn't much different from the Striped Skunk other than markings. So of our 9 families left, the families with only super obscure animals left are Nandinidae (1) + Prionodontidae (2) + Euperidae (3) + Mephitidae(4)= 9-4=5 unique Carnivora families left that could have more animals added to them.

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Kinkajou pictured

We do have raccoons for Procyonidae but Kinkajous and the more obscure Olingo are extremely different and unique animals from raccoons even though they are from the same family and then there's the ringtails and coati which are a little bit more similar to raccoons but have some difference like the small size and slightly more weasel-like appearance of the ringtail and the funny long nose of the coati. I think olingo are probably too obscure an animal to be included but coatis are an extremely popular wanted animal, and kinkajous are fairly well-known as exotic pets and ambassador animals at educational shows/private birthdays parties, etc. which regardless of one's personal ethical opinions on exotic pets and/or animal entertainment shows, means the kinkajou should also be fairly well-known/recognizable to the general public. The ringtail is less obscure than the olingos but probably not too well-known outside of the desert/ Southwestern North America environments.

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Black-footed Ferret Pictured

For Mustelidae, we do have otters and wolverines, but we have no actual small weasels like a marten/sable species, polecat species, stoat/ermine species, mink species, or any of the many species that simply have "weasel" in the common name. There's also the Endangered Black-footed ferret (the only wild species of ferret, although I guess technically it would be a type of polelcat) which was thought to be extinct before it was rediscovered by a dog that caught one and brought it back to its humans. And the famous "Honey Badger Don't Care" meme animal, the Honey Badger is part of Mustelidae as well so very well-known.

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Small Indian Mongoose pictured

For Herpestidae, we have only the meerkat but could use a more generic mongoose species. The only one I would personally avoid is the Banded Meerkat because it looks kind of similar to meerkats. And also super weird looking mongoose like Kusimanse species. But I think any species that would fit the generic mongoose look like the Egyptian Mongoose, Yellow Mongoose, Indian Grey Mongoose, Small Indian Mongoose, just as some examples, would be received well by the general public since we have the well-known story of Riki-Tiki-Tavi the famous mongoose who saved his family from a snake. Can you imagine how cool it be if they came with a snake-shaped enrichment toy that they could shake around and "fight" as well?

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Common genet pictured

For Viverridae, we have the Binturong but it's very different from every other member of its family look-wise. The family also includes civets, genets, and oyan. Oyan are super obscure so wouldn't be good for the game but the African Civet is somewhat decently known at least by people familiar with African wildlife / people that live in African countries and the Common Genet is a popular exotic pet so is even better known than civets. If we're going off of conservation value for including species, there's also a number of civets that are endangered like the Owston's Palm Civet, Otter Civet (which also has the adorable factor, although some might see it as another otter because of appearance even though it's not in the otter family), and the Banded Palm Civet is Near Threatened. While not endangered, the Large Indian Civet might be well-known to many players from Asian countries and has conservation value because it has been poached for medicine and perfume made from its musk glands.

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Hawiian Monk Seal pictured

For Phocidae (earless seals), we have the Grey Seal but there's no Southern hemisphere seals, the best candidates of which would be the Leopard Seal and/or the Southern Elephant Seal and there is no monk seal which the Hawaiian Monk seal is Endangered so could be good a candidate but the Mediterranean Monk seal is also Vulnerable so would work as well and either species could also mention something about their Carribean Monk seal relatives that were hunted to extinction to raise awareness of animals going extinct in modern history. The Harp seal is not only a good Arctic rep seal but I believe also the kind of seal pups that are featured in those sad videos of people clubbing baby seals to d**th so that could be brought up as a conservation concern in an educational way as a threat to the species.

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Galapagos Fur Seal pictured

Then we have Otariidae (Eared seals), including sea lions and fur seals. We already have a sea lion but we don't have a fur seal. Some good choices for that could be the Galapagos Fur Seal (Endangered), Northern Fur Seal (Endangered), New Zealand Fur Seal (just because it's a well-known/recognizable species even though its least concern), or the South American Fur Seal (just because it's South American and we need more South American animals in the game).


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Finally, last but not least, we have Odobenidae, whose only surviving member is the popularly requested walrus.

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Darwin's "Fox" (false fox from South America more closely related to wolves than true foxes) pictured
As for cats, dogs, and bears, I will admit that the North American black bear would really add nothing to the game conservation or unique-wise but there's still cats and dogs that can fill those niches. I absolutely do not really want 4th fox if another canid does come to the game as we already have 3 foxes, except unless it's the Near Threatened Island Fox which is very similar to the commonly requested Least concern Gray Fox but has more conservation value because it's Near Threatened and Endemic to islands. I would also accept any of the South American false "foxes" that are distantly related to true foxes and actually more closely related to wolves, such as the Crab-eating Fox, Culpeo, Pampas Fox, South American Grey Fox/Chilla, Darwin's Fox (Endangered and Endemic to Chile), the Sechuran Fox (Near Threatened, found in only Ecuador and Peru), and the Hoary Fox (Near Threatened and Endemic to Brazil). Just to be clear, I'm not saying all of those should be in the game. I'm saying that if we get another fox it should be either Island Gray Fox or one of the South American false "foxes".


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Red Wolf vs Coyote appearance image

However, I'd much rather a third wolf than a 4th fox. Technically both wolves we have are Grey Wolves. 2 species of wolf that could be included in the game and have high conservation value are the Ethiopian Wolf and the Red Wolf. Yes, the Ethiopian Wolf is not found in captivity because Ethiopia doesn't allow export of them but they are Endangered and having them in the game could help the general public become aware of their existence and the threats they face. The Red Wolf is nearly extinct in the wild with less than 20 individuals and has less than 300 in captivity:

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Canis rufus

  • Taxon: Mammal
  • Range: Eastern North Carolina
  • Status: First listed as “threatened with extinction” under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 in 1967. Currently listed as an "endangered species" under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
  • Population estimate as of February 2025:
    • Known/collared (wild): 16
    • Total estimate (wild): 17-19
    • Red Wolf SAFE (captive): 270

Quote Source: Red Wolf Recovery Program US Fish and Wildlife Service

They also suffer threats of losing protection because of people arguing that they aren't a real species but just a grey wolf-coyote hybrid or the only slightly better argument that they are just another subspecies of Gray Wolf since subspecies still get some protection, but hybrids don't. The ones in the wild have faced high mortality from vehicles and threats of hunters mistaking them for coyotes during times when night hunting of coyotes is allowed.

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Golden Jackal Pictured

However, what I really want is a jackal or coyote even over another wolf because we don't have any canids that fit that niche in the game. They are all least concern though as far as conservation values go but so are many other animals. And remember, this is a game, not a real zoo. People can make any kind of wildlife facility they want. We already have raccoons, red foxes, and skunks. If I wanted to make a zoo with only native animals like raccoons, foxes, skunks, and coyotes, I could pretend like it's a wildlife rehab center and those are the non-releasable ambassador animals for example. There's no rule that we have to make a traditional style zoo or even a realistic zoo in the game such as only having animals actually found in captivity. As for jackals, the Golden Jackal would give a Eurasian large canid since many European players see the Timber Wolf as representing only North American subspecies of wolf even though I personally just see it as a generic Grey Wolf and am not sure why Frontier didn't just call it Grey Wolf.

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Short-eared Dog pictured

If you're looking for oddball canids that aren't like anything already in the game, Bush Dogs (Near Threatened and from South America), Tanuki, and the Short-eared Dog (a Near Threatened South American species) fit the bill.

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Chinese Mountain Cat (a wild cat that looks like a domestic cat) pictured

For cats, there are endangered ones like the Bay Cat, Andean Mountain Cat, Flat-headed Cat, Near Threatened ones like the Asian Golden Cat, Marbled Cat, Margay, Pampas Cat, Rusty-Spotted Cat, and quite a few Vulnerable species like the African Golden Cat, Kod Kod, Oncilla, Southern Tigrina, Fishing Cat, Black-footed Cat, Chinese Mountain Cat, Iberian Lynx, and Sunda Clouded Leopard (which is apparently a different species from the Clouded Leopard).

For weird/ unusual/ odd ball cats some that fit the bill are:
Jaguarundi:
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Bay Cat:
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Flat-headed Cat:
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Then we have the "missing" popular cats: Ocelot, Bobcat, Canda Lynx, Serval, and to lesser degree, Iberian Lynx, the Margay, Fishing Cat, and European Wildcat.
Margay:
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European Wildcat:
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Well... I'm actually quite calm about the various animals we've gotten since the game came out, except for a few (I don't want to argue anymore, the community has argued about this countless times). If you want to sum it up in one sentence: give us something more unique, and please don't fool us with "reskinned animals" (especially since the market feedback of PC2 is so special).
 
You completely overlooked my points as to why the dama gazelle is bad animal for this message
  • Even within its own dlc the dama gazelle does not represent a new threat, region, animal type or type of conservation effort people will get just as much education from the addax as the dama gazelle
  • the specific ways in which they introduced the dama gazelle actively remove the conservation value from the animals only including it at the species level designed after the subspecies with the least conservation efforts and zoo presence when they had a subspecies that is both extinct in the wild and in a reasonable number of zoos
  • you say the dama gazelle offers a variety of threats, ecological niches or conservation efforts I fail to see a single thing unique about this particular inclusion other than its genus its range threats ecological niche and style of conservation are all covered by a variety of other animals.
  • I never said anything about only including success stories just that the stories need to be there and fully formed.

To add some new points
  • we have less than 200 animals in the game with significant blind spots to key groups. Including a rare both in captivity and in the wild animal with limited conservation efforts and little public knowledge from a group that already has 2 other representatives isnt productive both to conservation or the roster quality.
  • I never said that we shouldn't educate players about lesser known conservation efforts as long as there is something to educate about, something unique about the ways the animal is harmed, the ways in which its protected, the difficulties that efforts face something that makes the effort different to others.
  • This is first and foremost a game about building a zoo education always has and always will be second. The gameplay both the building and the storytelling are the most important aspects of this game both categories in which the dama gazelle fails with little unique about its story and even less unique about its habitat design.
  • there are only 3 non rodent critically endangered desert mammals and we got all three in the exact same pack we did not need the dama gazelle to tell a story that the pack was already telling

- also probably a hot take but this game is actually trash at educating players about conservation
I won’t attempt to change your mind on this, as it seems you’ve already made up your mind. However, I’d like to point out that the Dama gazelle in this game seems to be treated similarly to the Takin, where nuances between subspecies are clearly distinguished but developer decided on naming simplification to be more recognizable for regular player.

We’ve been introduced to nominate species of Dama gazelle, but understanding the specifics of it’s subspecies is quite difficult for a regular player. The term "Dama gazelle" is often used broadly to encompass all three subspecies in many well-known sources and texts, which can make it harder to grasp the full scope of the species' diversity especially for a regular player.

The three subspecies of the Dama gazelle are as follows:
  1. Addra gazelle
  2. Dama gazelle
  3. Nubian red-necked gazelle
My understanding is that Frontier may have initially aimed to include the Nubian subspecies, which is commonly found in American zoos. However, they likely decided to go with the more widely recognized name "Dama gazelle" for the sake of accessibility and familiarity to regular players. Especially that all subspecies are critically endangered.

With all this in mind, calling the game "trash" in terms of its approach to conservation feels like a rather bold and sweeping statement. If this perspective helps you feel more at ease, then good for you. However, I believe the conversation goes beyond simply dismissing the game’s approach to conservation, as, in my experience, its impact on other players is substantial.
 
Your mistake is thinking there is such a thing as an "ungulate fan" or a "carnivora fan". This is simply a case of different expectations, different personal priorities, and different 'needs'. Everyone here has at some point straddled or does currently straddle the line between "what I want" and "what I think the game needs" and though there is some overlap these things aren't always the same.
True, I mostly lapped them together to just show my point. I recognize it is far from accurate, but in the same way all birds are lumped together I lumped in the other animals. Just to show the frustration of it all. Like I said it’s definitely not accurate, but looking at the numbers they are the groups that make up the most of DLCs.
Besides which you mentioned condors twice, comparing them to the addax and dama gazelle, and let's be real, they are not comparable. In real world terms, sure, but not in game terms, because whether they could "technically work" as a habitat animal or not, they are still a bird that ought to be kept in an aviary. This is the same with a lot of birds that get brought up - secretarybirds, ibises, heck, even ducks to some extent (but we have the swan, so they in theory get a pass). I tend to assume that this is the reason why Frontier isn't so keen on expanding the bird roster overly much.**
True condors won’t workin game as it stands, I was just thinking of pointing out other conservation stories Frontier is “not highlighting”. In this case you are right, I really should have only mentioned the golden lion tamarin.
Bird collections in zoos are overwhelmingly aviary birds. IMO this is probably why there are people like me who don't feel like birds as a whole have been shafted.
That I get, but it’s still very frustrating. You don’t feel like birds are shafted, I still feel like they are to some degree. Granted as you said that does tie into personal needs vs wants which Frontier can never balance between thousands of players.
Clearly we aren't getting aviary birds for the game, and beyond the awkward "maybe, maybe not" birds I mentioned before most of the obvious "ground birds" have already been covered. Could we get more cranes? More pheasants? More flamingos? Yes, we clearly could, but should that be the priority? Conversely, ungulates, as a rule, are fairly easy to care for and to breed in captivity which is why they make up such an enormous portion of captive mammals.
Personally yes, I think we should prioritize more cranes, pheasants, penguins, waterfowl, and flamingos. I agree most people think of birds as aviary animals, so we are always gonna have an incomplete deck of cards. Still we have birds that do work in game, and while most other animals have options we do not for these guys. We have two gibbons, we still only have one flamingo. We have two caimans, we don’t have more than one crane. Now I get it being a popularity thing, but as Nutrit pointed out Planet Zoo is supposed to represent the conservation efforts of modern zoos, and it can also highlight lesser known animals. I think a prairie chicken and whooping crane could be great for the game, both of these animals represent amazing conservations stories in the states.

Which must I say, North America still has no bird representation in game! I don’t care if NA never gets any other representation in game, personally I am happy with what we have. Except my entire home continent has nothing! It feels silly! SILLY I SAY!

I just don’t see why for other animal groups we can have all these options, but I can’t get another flamingo without turning to mods?

Also this is a video game, and a building game at that. As a builder I would like to make a crane habitat without only using the red crowned crane every time. I would like to get a black swan. I would like a golden pheasant. I would love another Antarctic penguin so the king penguin isn’t so lonely. I know mods exist, but that could be said about any animal at this point.
This is similar to the arguments that Africa is "overrepresented"; it's not, and neither are ungulates. The roster is just reflecting real life, to some extent. Doesn't mean other areas aren't lacking, but it does mean ungulates shouldn't be shut out (plus, they're obviously pretty easy to make, compared to birds or monkeys).

**I maintain that this could be mitigated with a god damned mesh building set so we can at least pretend to have aviaries and covered habitats!
Honestly I don’t want ungulates shut out, I just want DLCs going forward to be a bit more balanced. Granted I don’t have the numbers, but I don’t think 1-2 birds would affect sales that much. From what I have seen on social media the birds in a pack can often be one of the most celebrated aspects of it.

As for the easy to make part, honestly I’m starting to think that is the simple reason as to why we have so many. We usually have either one habitat reptile or one bird. I wonder if maybe there is less staff capable of doing the scales and feathers.

* As for the mesh thing, man story of my life. Birds aside I want to make big cat or ape habitats with actual meshing. Maybe Frontier will give it to us in the next DLC?
 
The three subspecies of the Dama gazelle are as follows:
  1. Addra gazelle
  2. Dama gazelle
  3. Nubian red-necked gazelle
Bit of an aside, it kinda peeves me when a subspecies shares a common name with the species as a whole. So now there has to be added clarity when someone says “Dama gazelle”, because it could refer to the species as a whole or just one population of that species.
 
What’s the tldr on the last three pages? Seems like arguments about ungulates vs carnivores? Have only been loosely following. agree with the conservation message of arid ungulates
 
I would tend to agree that the game doesnt do the best job about delivering educational messages, including conservation.
But tbf that also a hard thing to do. If i learned anything about video games in my life its that people dont like to read, so if you only put a couple lines of text in the zoopedia entry your not gonna reach alot of people.
Its a little like if a real zoo would put a sign with a wall of text next to the enclosure, sure you can do that but lets be real how many people are gonna read that really?
Thats why i think signs that show and dont tell work alot better for the purpose of visitors actually taking something away from their visit and learning something.
 
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I would tend to agree that the game doesnt do the best job about delivering educational messages, including conservation.
But tbf that also a hard thing to do. If i learned anything about video games in my life its that people dont like to read, so if you only put a couple lines of text in the zoopedia entry your not gonna reach alot of people.
Its a little like if a real zoo would put a sign with a wall of text next to the enclosure, sure you can do that but lets be real how many people are gonna read that really?
Thats why i think signs that show and dont tell work alot better for the purpose of visitors actually taking something away from their visit and learning something.
I mean, I understand what you’re saying and it’s true for the majority of people but at least for me when I saw a weird animal in zoo tycoon two I read the zoopedia and learned a lot of facts about them and I can see a bunch of kids doing that with this game that are curious enough. Of course there’s always gonna be people that don’t care but it’s more than valuable to reach a couple people that are genuinely curious and want to learn.
 
I would tend to agree that the game doesnt do the best job about delivering educational messages, including conservation.
But tbf that also a hard thing to do. If i learned anything about video games in my life its that people dont like to read, so if you only put a couple lines of text in the zoopedia entry your not gonna reach alot of people.
Its a little like if a real zoo would put a sign with a wall of text next to the enclosure, sure you can do that but lets be real how many people are gonna read that really?
Thats why i think signs that show and dont tell work alot better for the purpose of visitors actually taking something away from their visit and learning something.
Yep. It's why zoos have gone far more into visual displays along with keeper talks to inform guests...as people will learn 10x more than if they are left to read blocks of writing by themselves.
It's also one of the reasons I'm so underwhelmed by the very few educational items and options in PZ. They have improved quite a bit since base game(which wasn't hard because the base game had effectively nothing), but guest education remains an underdeveloped aspect of the game.
 
I would tend to agree that the game doesnt do the best job about delivering educational messages, including conservation.
But tbf that also a hard thing to do. If i learned anything about video games in my life its that people dont like to read, so if you only put a couple lines of text in the zoopedia entry your not gonna reach alot of people.
Its a little like if a real zoo would put a sign with a wall of text next to the enclosure, sure you can do that but lets be real how many people are gonna read that really?
Thats why i think signs that show and dont tell work alot better for the purpose of visitors actually taking something away from their visit and learning something.
They could have game mechanics (missions, objectives, etc) set around conservation efforts (rescuing animals, rehabiliting animals, increasing the number of endangered animals through breeding programs, reintroduction to the wild, and etc) to make the player engage in that aspect of the game and learn in the process.
 
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